Tyre Wear

[Ämen va e de här? Motorstopp!?]

How many kilometers do Soft, Medium and hard tyres last?
Generally how I choose is like this:
Soft for <10km to next service
Medium for 10km to 16km to next service
Hard for >16km to next service
(All distances expect a crashless drive)
Is this even remotely right? How do you guys do it?

[ZeroAffex]

Yea most I'll run on softs is 10km at maximum push. I've been conservative with softs stretching them out longer than that but then my times aren't much better than mediums going maximum push. So yea generally 10 or less for softs, 10-15 for mediums and 15+ for hards. Hards are pretty damn nice on heavy gravel though and are often overlooked. If I am on heavy gravel and have anything over 10km I usually jump on hards just to have sustained grip through the stages.

[mattshep69]

Originally posted by ZeroAffex:

Yea most I'll run on softs is 10km at maximum push. I've been conservative with softs stretching them out longer than that but then my times aren't much better than mediums going maximum push. So yea generally 10 or less for softs, 10-15 for mediums and 15+ for hards. Hards are pretty damn nice on heavy gravel though and are often overlooked. If I am on heavy gravel and have anything over 10km I usually jump on hards just to have sustained grip through the stages.

sounds like good advice to me. I will pay more attention to the hard tires now.

[IncubusDragon]

I've never noticed any difference at all to durability - to the extent that I assume tyre wear is another aspect of the game that is "broken".

I have gained time advantages selecting soft when medium recommended, but found zero advantage to hard tyres under any circumstances.

So it's good to see that someone can see a difference, because it ain't happening in my setup.

[mattshep69]

I have definitely suffered loss of grip due to tyre wear. Usually if I forgot to replace tyres in the service area, or the last half of a stage before a service. Medium is the usual recommendation due to lasting longer than soft. If you do the daily stages then soft is the best option as they are all less than 10 miles, also no spare tyre because of weight penalty.

[Aurora]

Softs are pretty good to run upto 13miles depending on your driving style, if you're spinning the wheels a lot they won't last anywhere near as long. Wet surfaces will also not wear them out anywhere near as much. I've never been in a situation where i've needed to use hard tyres yet, only medium at a push if I have a 4 stage stretch or something.

[DieCalmerThanASuicideBomber]

I agree with post #1, ... and definitly you can feel a set of mediums going off if you try to push them 20k,

[Diablo2604]

I may be a madman, but i use soft tyres for any length, even 20+km :D

[Ämen va e de här? Motorstopp!?]

Yeah, having put more hours in. I can say if I wanna play it safe with my driving style:
Soft <18 km
Medium <27 km
Hard >27 km

[Apex Azimuth]

Approximate durability in my experience, having run several endurance rallies:

Soft:
0-15km - 11/10 rating (Magic tires)
15-25km - 8/10 rating (about as good as fresh mediums)
25-40km - 6/10 rating (still better than fresh hard tires)
>40km - 2/10 rating (Very poor performance...)

Medium:
0-25km - 9/10 rating
25-45km - 7/10 rating
45-65km - 6/10 rating (still slightly better than fresh hard tires)
>65km - 3/10 rating (unpredictable and worse than fresh hard tires)

Hard:
0-???km: 4/10 rating
Hards are crappy but predictable tires that in my experience never show any noticeable wear, regardless of how much distance you have between services. The only application I can see for hards in DR2.0 is if f you're running a 12 stage rally with no services, and you prefer not to feel any tire wear throughout.

I've run several 12 stage rallies on one set of medium tires and it's usually only the last 2-3 stages where the mediums perform very poorly. The time you'd gain from having good to decent medium tires for 75-90% of your rally, far than makes up for the time you lose on every stage consistently using hards.

My conclusion/final advice:

You can safely run 3 full length stages on a set of soft tires, more than that and you may want to consider mediums, but there's almost no situation where hard tires are a good choice.

[mattshep69]

I would just like to add that softer tyres are punctured more easily, than the harder ones, so that should also be considered when choosing your tyres. Also weight penalties added for carrying a spare wheel.

[Hoksu]

Originally posted by mattshep69:

I would just like to add that softer tyres are punctured more easily, than the harder ones

Has this actually been confirmed by Codies? Or what is this based on?

[mattshep69]

Its based on experience. When I use soft tyres I get punctures more often.

[mattshep69]

This is only more noticeable when there are rocks on the roadside, coisions with wheels.

[mattshep69]

I have also noticed that failure to repair bodywork, also makes a flat more likely, as there may be less body work protecting the wheels.

[somethingthing]

3 stages soft
4 short stages soft
4 stages with 1-2 long ones medium